Ronny Vercauteren

Title

Nature’s hidden tools as a new entry to create affordable β-glucans

Bio

Ronny started working for Cargill in 1991 and is currently Senior Advisor in the global Core R&D team. His focus is on the development of novel ingredients in the carbohydrate, lipid and protein domains. This involves the use of green chemical as well as biochemical catalysis, in conjunction with novel process technologies and application domains. He is scientific consultant for several business units inside Cargill. Ronny has won several scientific innovation awards in Cargill and is the main inventor of around 30 patents and author or co-author of scientific papers in different scientific fields. Ronny obtained his master’s degree in Chemistry at Ghent University, Belgium, where he later obtained his PhD in organic chemistry.

He also functions as a member of the innovation committee of Catalisti, and point of contact for Cargill in the European Polysaccharide Network of Excellence (EPNOE). In his lecture, he will give an overview on the different types of β-glucans and shed a light on their current and potential future applications. Subsequently explaining more in detail the synthesis of 1,2-β-glucans by enzymatic means. By using the concept of “activated sugars”, production routes will be described along with the enzymes required to obtain the 1,2-β-glucans.